THE WEST WING CAN SEE THE FUTURE.

A friend just IM'd me to note that she'd been working her way through the final season of the West Wing and was startled by the similarities between their fictional election and our actual one. Hypercharismatic, minority insurgent captures the Democratic nomination at a brokered convention? Check. Superficially heterodox Republican straight-talker beats a smooth-talking preacher for his party's nod? Yes, indeed. And the similarities run deeper than that. Slate explains: